Courtesy: EMBRY-RIDDLE photography

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Embry-Riddle men’s and women’s cross country teams placed a combined five student-athletes on the Daktronics-All-America Scholar Athlete rosters that were announced by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics on Friday. Emily Cook and Kimber Wille were recognized on the women’s honor roll of 254 individuals, while Nick Gehlsen, Russell Snyder and Henry Melius were three of only 170 male student-athletes nationwide to meet the minimum requirements of being a junior with a 3.5 or better grade point average on 4.0 scale.

Cook is currently in her third season with the Blue and Gold and has a 3.63 grade point average in Aerospace Engineering.  The Grovetown, Ga. native has raced in six meets this season, including her sub-20-minute performance (19:33.60) at the Charles Bowles Invitational. She ran her second fastest race of the season (20:02.00) at the Hatter Invitational before coming in 11th overall at The Sun Conference Championships.

Wille is a senior in Aeronautical Science with a 3.5 GPA.  Wille, who is from Port Washington, Wis., has raced in five meets in 2009 and scored as the Eagles’ third place finisher at the Knight Attack Challenge (22:46.00). She ran her fastest 5K of the year so far at the Hatter Invite, clocking in at 21:03.

A senior from Nokesville, Va., Gehlsen carries a 3.59 grade point average in Aerospace Engineering and has consistently finished among the Eagles’ top four this season. He ran his best race so far this year at the Charles Bowles Invitational where he crossed in 24:47 to take 18th overall. He took fifth place at The Sun Conference championships in a time of 27:46.86 to earn All-Conference honosr, making it a perfect four-for-four on the All-Conference honor roll in his collegiate career.

Snyder (St. Petersburg, Fla.) is currently a junior in Embry-Riddle’s Software Engineering program and has a 3.79 GPA.  Snyder finished just ahead of Gehlsen at The Sun Conference Championship in 27:18.37 and his fastest time of the season also came at the Charles Bowles Invite where he placed 16th overall and third among Eagle harriers in 24:44.50.

Melius, who is also from Nokesville, Va., has competed in six events for the Eagles this season, scoring in four. The junior finished fifth overall at the Florida Tech Invitational (26:19.43) in the Eagles’ first race of the year, and matched that finish at the Asics Classic, crossing in 27:58.20. Melius has also gotten the job done in the classroom as seen in his 3.98 GPA in Aeronautical Science.

The Eagles will race in their final event of the 2009 season on Saturday when they compete at the NAIA National Championships at Fort Vancouver Historical Site in Vancouver, Wash. The women’s race begins at 10:30 a.m. PST and the men’s event is scheduled for 11:45 a.m. PST.